Tag Archive

An excerpt from my latest post at Future of Teaching: As a data specialist, I often find myself thinking of how hard we work to find abstractions of things we can’t quantify. We try to equate learning into achievement, because points matter so much more than the amorphous shifting of ideas into and through our minds. We put things in spreadsheets, click a bunch of buttons, and make predictions based …

An excerpt from my latest at the Future of Teaching: Nowadays, people have little qualms about making friends online and meeting them in person. To wit, the Teaching 2030 team still has strong ties, even though we rarely get to see each other collectively. Part of that came from having a common goal and vision, but another part of it is building the right conditions to assure that everyone can …

An excerpt from my latest at The Future of Teaching: I propose that, those of us who’ve seen what’s happened with character education instead use the term “responsible citizenship.” I recently Googled the term “responsible citizenship” and found a plethora of definitions, but they all coalesce around the idea that we must teach children to actively participate in their environments and contribute positively to them. Some might take this term …

Excerpt: As a teacher, I have a few ways to say “that’s wrong” without actually saying it. The point isn’t to sanitize the class or soften the critique. For students, they often see the word “wrong” as a gateway to devaluing their own potential, as if their wrong answer determines their competency in the subject. We have to find ways for students to own and play on their mistakes without …

An excerpt from my latest: It might be the best description of the first week of faculty meetings for schools nationwide. The Common Core State Standards (and multiple intelligences, the workshop model, and the host of other initiatives I’ve seen) have brought along their own set of pseudo-experts coming in to tell teachers what to teach, how to teach, and, inevitably why. The last one is particularly insulting because I’d …

Excerpt: Having a dress code matters in far too many schools. I know of schools where, on dress down days, kids wear strictly primary colors depending on their affiliations, or look down on one another for inexpensive wardrobe. It also sets a tone, teaching students early that coming to school is like coming to work in a way where looks matters, so dress appropriately. At least these are some of …

Excerpt: The trend of gamifying our culture has had some benefits in other areas. Weight Watchers uses a points system to discourage customers from eating fatty foods. Nike+ has developed a specialized program (with shoes!) that help you compete against others through exercise. Klout uses equations to help rank people and brands through social media. Games often find themselves in the tools we as teachers use to encourage kids to …

Excerpt: However, I can’t help but feel some sort of way about the risk / reward dynamic that’s played itself out when it comes to advocacy. As professionals, how long can teachers wait until our profession gets completely stripped away from us? How much will we tolerate policy committees and education panels without so much as a former teacher, much less a current one? How often do we value the …

Excerpt: While we should always have a skeptical eye towards new research, here’s hoping this movement towards bilingual education doesn’t die the way the movement towards the metric system. (As a math teacher, I’m still annoyed at having to use inches instead of centimeters.) At this point in education, we’ve only had a passing fancy with other languages. Spanish, French, German, and Italian seem to dominate the foreign language category, …

Excerpt: I know there are a billion frameworks, most notably from Charlotte Danielson and Robert Marzano. I also don’t have faith in people who sell their products to districts who muck up any effort to improve the teaching profession with real research. Akin to what we do with students, Campbell’s Law comes into effect when we continually hammer in the idea that teachers should follow (narrow) checklists and rubrics to …

More About Me

José Luis Vilson is a math educator, blogger, speaker, activist, and author of This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education. He has written and spoken about education, math, and race for a number of organizations and publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, CNN, Edutopia, and others.

This Is Not A Test

One of the most critically acclaimed education books of 2014 is now available via Haymarket Books or wherever books are sold. Go get yours today!

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